Reader: G5 freezes plaguing hundreds of users

Knock on wood.

I have seen people blame a lot of stuff on Apple that is of their own accord though. I'm not accusing everybody of this, but if you on this list, BEWARE!

If you've drug a lot of stuff from a different system into a new system, don't expect it to work like a new system.

If you image and re-image from old Mac to new, don't blame erratic behavior on Apple.

If you load up tons of share ware or system tweaks, don't complain when things don't work right. (even one old system tweak which worked fine under 10.2 can cause problems in 10.3)

If you put in really cheap third party RAM, be careful.

I'm sure readers here can come up with more of these.

I have a dual 2Ghz G5 loaded with software and has every Apple update on it and I never shut it down. Can't remember the last time I rebooted it.

The only time I really see OS X freezing on my G5 and G4 towers (or any other computer) is when the disk directory is damaged. DiskWarrior, or even Apple's Disk Utility usually will fix this. Unfortunately, the disk directory gets damaged far too easily and far too often, in my humble opinion. Enabling journaling (it's enabled by default in OS 10.3 but not OS 10.2) helps prevent directory damage significantly but, it's certainly no guarantee. Even people who know better (myself included) often neglect this. I won't dismiss this alleged problem outright as it's very possible it's a valid issue but as a Mac technician I've seen many many Macs running OS X and 9 that simply don't work right because the disk directory is damaged and being sorely neglected by its user. There are some indicators to the presence of directory damage besides freezing - for example, if you have a custom icon on your system drive and suddenly one day the icon reverts back to the default OS X hard drive icon it's a safe bet you need to scan your directory for damage. At least I've found this to be true.

I've had some freezing issues with the latest 10.3 build and the powerbook. Mostly with Safari trying to load a page. So I guess it is more software related than hardware. Hope it is fixed soon. I had to reboot twice today......haven't done that since system 9.

I'm an Apple certified hardware tech. I did have one G5 come in that failed a hardware ROM test several times when our test was looped overnight. Replacing the logic board appears to have fixed this guy's problem.

We have also seen a significant number of machines come in with bad third party RAM. We have even seen it installed incorrectly from mail-order companies. Most of the bad RAM we see has been given away by these mail order companies.

We own two XServes. We have been getting kernel panics for over a month now. The worst part is, even though we have AppleCare, Apple won't handle this type of problem. We eventually found a solution : Sun Microsystems. Not only do they offer a better product, they have the tech support we needed and which Apple was unable to offer despite some warranty extension which clearly helps Apple make more money without adding extra support. I know, it doesn't run OS X... big deal !

I got two x-serves and they have and are running flawlessly. Set them up and forget about them... check the backup of course : )

Xraid is also great. I feel bad for you that you have trouble but mine are smooth sailing and fast.

We too have been having kernel panics on our xServes for months as well as freezing while coping large amounts of data to our xraids. However we have fixed the problem...cheap ram and cheap cables. We pulled the cheap RAM and bought Apple fiber channel cables and our xServes have not crashed or locked up in 2 weeks. Most of our G5's that were having Kernel panics were solved by getting rid of cheap ram. Case in point: we ordered 5 G5's with the value ram, out of 10 sticks of ram 3 would even let the G5 boot. All of that ram is running in PC's with no problems.

FYI: An apple engineer told me that 99.9% of kernel panics are caused by substandard RAM. Just because it works when you boot the machine doesn't mean the ram is ok.

We did change the RAM but without any improvement. We switched hard drives, turned off the RAID (and had it fully checked by a technician) and used internal and external FW400 and 800 hard drives. Our XServes ran fine for more than a year and a half. Upgrading to MacOS X 10.3 Server messed the whole thing up but worse, downgrading back to 10.2 did not solve the problem. BTW, we use a XServe as en OPI server but the tech we consulted certified that the OPI feature could not generate such problems. I've known him for years and fully trust him. He's been in contact with other tech support parties but got the same echo about kernel panic problems affecting XServes. Copying files is indeed what triggers the kernel panics. As to how to solve the problem, I'm sure you'll understand we're not going to shell out some more cash to get a Sun without trying to find some cheaper solution first.

I am experiencing the lock up quite often. At first i thought it was software related, but I have no had it happen twice at the user login screen to get into the operating system. I also noticed that if i am listening to music in itunes, it continues to play the song even while completely locked up.

i've read through everyones comments and given most thought out solutions a try and nothing is working. this is really screwing me though. There are times where i am using our database on the phone with a customer and it happens and loses all of their information. times when i am in photoshop and carelessly forget to save every 12 seconds and it happens. middle of documents or emails. its drivign me crazy. i want to beat the crap out of this giant g5 box....

just wondering if anyone has had the same kind of problems as me and is pretty positive its not software related. ....